Puzikova S.M.,

Doctor of Education, Professor

General and Ethnic Education Department

al-Farabi KazNU

 

IMPROVEMENT OF SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION (SOME SUGGESTIONS FROM LEARNING PROCESS PARTICIPANTS)

 

Academician S.P. Korolev once stated that "if you did something quickly, but badly, everyone will forget that you you've done it quickly, but will remember that you have done it badly" [1, p.7]. These words, as ever, are relevant in the modern era, the age of information, where each subsequent stage of society development becomes 3-4 times shorter than the previous one; theflight of time is accelerating, and thereforemaking wrong decisions becomes unsafe for the future.

 Self-directed work in the educational process allows to developindividual’s ability to quickly make creative decisions in unconventional circumstances. Productively organized self-directed work is now an important mechanism for the development of creative potential of every individual and a real reserve in implementation of continuing educationparadigm.

Improvement of self-directed work is closely related to and determined by a rapid pace of computer technologydevelopment, in connection with which the question ofitsthoughtful, not mechanical implementation in the learning process emerges full blown. Our life has beensmoothly entered by social media (blogs, wiki-technologies, audio, video services, microblogs (Twitter), social networks, e-mail, chatrooms, etc., to be fully used in the organization of all known forms of self-directed work (however, without absolute priority given to the role of telecommunications in training).

How to use these technical novelties with the most, even valeological, effect, given peculiar characteristics of a specific audience? In pursuit of innovation, social researches can provide indispensable help to a practicing teacher, as they are, being a “feedback”, allow one to adjust the forms and methods of work, taking into account the aggregate of motivating factors in training, and to bring closer and join the research and practice. Through sociological surveys among students a teacher quickly gets a lot of creative and“integrative” ideas; some of them we will discuss in this article.

In November 2014 I conducted a survey amongMaster’s degree studentsof the 1stcoursefrom several departments (Philosophy and Political Science, Mechanics and Mathematics, and Department of Law) of Kazakhstan's leading university - al-Farabi Kazakh National University. 62 respondents were interviewed.

Analysis of their responses revealed some interesting ideas that combine innovative and traditional forms of self-directed learning. Thus, a third of the respondents (33%) were in favor of making traditional forms of self-learning into actual practical classes, using group discussions, disputes and team games. Master’s degree students (especially among non-humanity specialties)believe that we need to increase the number of classroom and practical classes and to closely relate self-directed work with the industry-specific enterprises, practical production, and to turn CPM (independent work of a Master’s course student) into working with employers. Respondents have also noted that the group work, rather than individual work, increases motivation factor and mutual intellectual activity, enhances the effectiveness of cognitive activity, through mutual control. Therefore, respondents believe the presence of a team to be the main condition for the effective conduct of independent work in a social group - 25%. It was also noted that self-directed learning is more effective if it is conducted in a "pair"; that is distributed to pairs of participants - 41,7%.

Respondents suggest that they could practice more often analysis of contemporary scientific literature, its collective discussion and comparative analysis of various sources,as a relevant form of self-directed learning -11.3%. Master’s course students also spoke in favor of wider practice of the work with primary sources, noting that the majority of students still obtain all the information from the Internet –it is like a "chewed gum" that has nothing to do with self-directed learning - 35, 5%.

Instead of a traditional preparation of an essay or a report on a topical issue, Master’s course students believed it was possible to replace this type of work with the writing of a scientific paper with subsequent review by a teacher. In this case the best works of students should be awarded by free publication in a scientific journal of the school - UniversityHerald, and its author could claim the reward in the form of advantageous employment for a specific company, upon recommendation of the university. Surveyparticipants pointed to the need toadopt the experience of the education system in the USSR, where “the best students were employed by the best companies” - 8.1%.

Master’s course students also suggested thatself-directed work with a teacher could be turned into workshops with foreign universities, into communication over the Internet with the students from other universities (for similar disciplines), and into teleconferences, where experience and relevant information could be exchanged – 6.45%. This format could be used to also carry out mutual assessment of the work of students from various universities. Evaluation results would be sent to email address and addresses of the universities, and to individual e-mail addresses - 11.3%. Experience has shown that mutual assessment of the students is quite effective; it results in self-assessment of the work, i.e., it automatically develops the skills of self-directedlearning. Feedback obtained in this way allows astudent to obtain information quickly and often to a greater extent than when his/her work is being reviewed by a teacher. In addition, not only the person that receives feedback is learning, but the person giving it learns, too [2, p.142].

Of interest is the proposal for the Master’s degree students to create their own movie based on a particular problem situation, as a form of the self-directed work, where it will showhow the situation is resolved. At the same time they emphasized the paramount importance of visualization of contemporary issues through this particular method.

Master’s degree students suggest rather interesting forms of incentives for the quality and conscientious performance of self-directed work.

 First of all, it is recording the progress through social network, the Internet; making top rating every week – “The best independent works of the university”; organization of competitions under the same slogan, organization of get-togetherevening of teachers with the best master’s course students, etc.

Secondly, financial incentives of the master’s course students in the form of Gift vouchers for the purchase of outstanding and expensive scientific publications, as well as granting bonus points for current classes (although some respondents were adamantly against it, explaining: “I do not want to study for points”).

Third, which is not new but for many Master’s course students the most important incentive would be a genuine public praise by a teacher in their current class (87, 1%).

It seems that these suggestionsare worth considering, and possibly can be used at almost any stage of educational process.

 

Bibliography:

 

1.        Sadovnichy V. Education as a safety factor in Russia // Alma Mater. Bulletin of the higher education institution. - 1998. - ¹ 3. - pp. 3-8

2.        Bogolepova S.V. Self- and peer assessment techniques as a tool in the development of students’ independence // Materialsfrom the reports of II All-Russian scientific and practical Internet conference “Organization of students’ self-directed work” (December 6-9 2013) - Saratov: “New Project” Publishers, 2013. –p.188.